1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer and more particularly to a printer including a continuous sheet supply means and an automatic sheet supply mechanism. To facilitate explanations, directional expressions such as "front," "rear," "above," "below," "left," "right," "laterally," and the like are used hereinafter to define various parts when the printer is disposed in an orientation in which it is intended to be used. Specifically, the side of a printer to which an automatic sheet supply mechanism is disposed will be considered the front side and the opposite side of the printer will be considered the rear side.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, there has been known a printer 101 with a tractor unit 115, acting as a continuous sheet supply means for supplying a continuous sheet paper, and an automatic sheet supply mechanism 105, for supplying single cut sheets of paper, disposed separately on opposing front and rear sides of the printer 101. Single cut sheets of paper are supplied from the automatic sheet supply mechanism 105 to a printhead 104 and discharged to the stacker 145 at the rear side. Continuous sheet paper, on the other hand, is supplied from the tractor unit 115 disposed at the rear side of the printer 101 to the printhead 104 and discharged from the front side of the printer 101.
However, there has been a problem in this type of printer 101 in that an operator must go around to the rear side of the printer 101 to change the continuous sheet paper. This problem is especially prominent when the printer 101 is installed with the rear side against a wall. In this case the entire printer 101 must be moved to replace the continuous sheet paper.
As shown in FIG. 2, there is known a conventional printer 201 which has improved this point by having both the tractor unit 215 and the automatic sheet mechanism 205 disposed at the front side of the printer 201. The automatic sheet supply mechanism 205 of this printer 201 is detachably mounted to the front side of the printer 201 at the position where the continuous sheet is drawn in by the tractor unit 215. The automatic sheet supply mechanism includes a hopper 222 for holding stacked single cut sheets, a separation means 210 made from a pick-up roller and a separation roller, and a drive source and a drive mechanism (neither shown) for driving the hopper 222 and the separation means 210. The stacked single cut sheets of paper held in the hopper 222 are separated one at a time by the separation means 210 and transmitted to the printhead 204. A control panel (not shown) is disposed at the upper front side of this printer 201 by which an operator inputs various instructions and commands,
However, as shown in FIG. 2, the automatic sheet supply mechanism 205 obstructs access to the tractor unit 215 and not enough space is provided to change the continuous sheet of paper. Therefore, to secure sufficient space to change the continuous sheet paper, an operator must first remove the automatic sheet supply mechanism from the printer body 203. As a result, changing the continuous sheet paper is a troublesome operation.